BP is trying several different approaches to resolving the Gulf Oil Spill, and in a recent presentation by Senior VP Kent Wells, he showed the chart above to demonstrate how their efforts to collect the oil are improving every day.  Relying on the public’s perception of upward trendlines being “good”, Stephen Few wasn’t falling for it.  He took the raw data, and compiled his own graph showing not the Cumulative Oil Collected, but the Oil Collected Daily.

While the amount of collection increased in the beginning, it has decreased or held steady for the last four days and is now well below the average amount of daily collection for this period as a whole. Things are definitely not getting better. How do you spin bad news like this? One way is to create a misleading graph, but cover your ass by doing it in a way that isn’t an outright lie.

This may be the single best example of using visualization to tell the story you want, rather than the real story.

via Visual Business Intelligence – BP Oil Collection – Is the Effort Really Improving?.